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Tag: 2018

  • Theresa May – 2018 Statement at Norwegian Parliament

    Below is the text of the statement made by Theresa May, the Prime Minister, at the Norwegian Parliament on 30 October 2018.

    Thank you very much Prime Minister and it is a great pleasure to be here in Norway – this is my first visit to Norway as Prime Minister.

    I’m delighted to have been able to attend the Northern Future Forum – thank you for hosting it and thank you for focusing our thinking on the important subject of how innovation and technology can improve healthcare, and how we can, the Nordic and Baltic countries and the UK can cooperate more in this area to the benefit of all our citizens.

    As you say, the UK and Norway have a strong and long-standing bilateral relationship. A very strong relationship across a great many issues, and I look forward to building on that in the future.

    I look forward to talking to you about how we can enhance our future trade relationship, and how we can work together on issues like security and defence, and on the many other issues you have listed where we share our thinking and have worked together in the past.

    And we want to build on that cooperation when we leave the European Union.

    Thank you for the comments you have just made and the commitment you have made to UK citizens here in Norway and I make the same commitment to Norwegian citizens living in the UK.

    We hope of course to be able to come to a satisfactory conclusion of the current negotiations in relation to this matter.

    In the event of no deal, we would look to be able to have an agreement for EEA and EFTA countries, but whatever happens, we confirm that people from with EEA EFTA countries, Norwegian citizens and those others who are living in the UK who have made their life choice to be in the UK will be able to stay in the UK. We want them to stay, they are part of our community, they are part of our country and we welcome the contribution that they make.

    I look forward to the talks we are going to have today, and also look forward to the opportunity to address what I believe is the 70th session of the Nordic Council.

  • Sajid Javid – 2018 Speech to APCC and NPCC Joint Summit

    Below is the text of the speech made by Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, to the APCC and NPCC Joint Summit held on 31 October 2018.

    It gives me great pleasure to be here today at the APCC and NPCC Partnership Summit.

    Let me just start by saying a thank you.

    Thank you to all of you Police and Crime Commissioners, friends who could not make it today, for all the work that you do.

    Some of you may know that before I came into politics, I was in business.

    I travelled the world. I visited many countries on the continent.

    Policing people would very often say – and perfectly understandably – you, people in Britain, we have the best police in the world.

    They say that because we do have the best police in the world. And that is recognised by everyone.

    And that starts with leadership – that means you, so thank you for what you do and how you do it.

    You will always have my admiration and my support for what you do.

    Now, one thing I can say about becoming Home Secretary, is that it is indeed a very sharp learning curve.

    When I took up the job, I thought policing was an area that I knew a little bit about, something I would understand quite quickly.

    But one thing that I realised is that it’s an area of course that every Home Secretary takes very seriously.

    And that’s because public safety is the number one priority of the government, and the public need to be able to rely on a resilient and effective police service.

    But what I’ve learnt since taking on the job, is that crime is changing faster than we could ever have anticipated.

    As crime changes, so do the demands on police.

    Previously under-reported crimes such as sexual abuse, domestic abuse, modern slavery – these are being reported to the police more than ever before.

    In the last 5 years, we have seen the number of recorded child sexual offences, for example, increase by more than 200%.

    It was when I visited the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation Online Protection Command, that the full horror of the scale of child sexual abuse was really brought home to me.

    The National Crime Agency estimates there are some 80,000 people in the UK at present that are committing some kind of sexual threat to children online.

    And the NCA also believes this is a conservative estimate.

    I know that investigating these types of crimes – it doesn’t just take a lot of resources, they are not just complex – but it can also be a very harrowing experience for officers that are involved.

    Then of course there’s other forms of online crime.

    You’re now more likely to be the victim of crime online than offline.

    I welcome, for example, the work of the Police and Crime Commissioners from Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria, who have been working together to help prevent the elderly and vulnerable from becoming victims of online crime.

    There’s of course also been a worrying and unacceptable recent rise in serious violent crime and it’s something that the government is determined to work with you to crack down on.

    Then there’s of course the risk from terrorism which has also escalated and evolved, with the threat level to the UK from international terrorism currently being set as ‘severe’.

    We know also that the police are being asked to respond to hostile state activity, and of course top of my mind is the deadly nerve agent attack that took place earlier this year.

    The police response of course was exemplary, but it wasn’t without risk.

    How can we forget what happened to Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey for instance?

    So what is clear is that the challenges that the police are facing have changed and are continuing to change.

    Yet, when crime changes, we do expect our forces to adapt, while also covering everything else that they usually cover – the burglaries and murders, all the things people also care very much about, as well as dealing with these increases in these more complex crimes.

    So today I want to talk to you about what more you can perhaps do – as leaders in policing – to tackle modern day crime and to respond to the changing crime landscape.

    As well as to talk about what we – the Home Office, and more broadly in government – can do to support you.

    First of all, I know that you are feeling stretched.

    I recognise that demand has risen and that you’re grappling with your budgets.

    And I want to do something about it.

    While resources are not the whole answer, they are of course a vital part of it.

    That’s why we’re now investing over £1 billion more in policing than we did three years ago, including money raised through council tax.

    You will have also been pleased to hear from the Chancellor on a couple of issues this Monday.

    First is the increase in funding for counter-terrorism policing for 2019-20, an increase of £160 million.

    But also a commitment from the Chancellor that he and I will be working together to ensure that the police have the resources that they need for 2019/20 in time for the police settlement which is due in December.

    The Chancellor has also promised that, for example, mental health services will receive an additional £2 billion a year.

    I hope that this money will also make a big difference to police forces.

    Because I know that all too often, you’ve been asked to step in and deal with mental health issues, mental health crises when in fact, of course, we should be looking to the NHS.

    And I’ve also been very clear – I’ve just talked about 2019-20 but I want to look further – and I’ve been very clear since I’ve been Home Secretary, that when it comes to the Spending Review next year, my priority will be policing.

    But if we are to make the case for more funding, then this does have to go hand-in-hand with further reforms and to look and see what more we can do together to improve policing.

    Because we all know, and I said a moment ago, that money is not the only issue, it’s not all about resources.

    That’s why I’m also making sure, for example, that police have the right powers.

    One of these powers, for instance, is Stop and Search.

    I want officers to feel confident, I want them to feel trusted and supported when they are using Stop and Search, and I will be looking at ways to reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency in the use of this power.

    I’m also committed to making sure that police get the right protection.

    That’s why this government supported a new law which doubles the maximum prison sentence for assaults against emergency workers from six to 12 months.

    This Act comes into effect next month.

    Finally, I’m supporting plans to improve wellbeing across all levels in the police.

    We’ve already pledged £7.5m for a new national police welfare service.

    And I was pleased to announce at the Police Superintendents’ Conference that £400,000 of this money will fund the proposal by Chief Constable Andy Rhodes and the College of Policing to get wellbeing buses outside local police stations.

    These will offer information and support to anyone that needs it.

    But all of this is just a snapshot of some of the work I’m doing at the Home Office alongside your teams, to try and help in different ways.

    But I want to turn now to what I think you can do to improve policing and what my vision for policing is looking ahead.

    Because we all know that not all forces are where they need to be.

    Some could be more effective.

    The most recent inspectorate report on effectiveness for instance, judged that a significant minority of local forces were struggling to manage demand and were unable to give the public the service that they were expecting.

    In some cases, they said there are changes taking place, but they are too slow, especially when they are compared with other forces who seem to make same changes at a much faster rate.

    They said standards are inconsistent.

    That innovation hadn’t spread widely enough.

    Some forces are far behind where they need to be in seizing the opportunities in terms of how they use data and how they work in the digital age.

    These problems cannot all be blamed on funding levels.

    The inspectorate is clear that there is considerable scope for improvement in how police leadership anticipates and manages demand.

    As leaders in policing, as the experts, I look to you and look at how you can take a long hard look at what your forces need and are you asking the right questions to make them more effective.

    And today I thought I’d share with you four areas that as leaders I think you could be focusing on – perhaps a little more in some cases – to make your forces even more effective than they already are.

    Firstly, more needs to be done to increase the capacity for police.

    Extra investment will help, of course – and I’m pleased that some of you have started recruiting again.

    Capability gaps need to be plugged.

    Where we can help we will.

    For example, when the inspectorate highlighted national gaps in detectives and relevant cyber expertise within forces, we responded by funding Police Now to develop a new national detective programme.

    We’ve also committed £50 million over the next year to boost cyber capabilities within law enforcement.

    But as PCCs and Chiefs, you also have a very important part to play.

    That’s why I welcome the inclusion of Force Management Statements.

    Let’s use these to be smarter in anticipating and managing demand.

    We need to make sure that most of our officers spend most of their time on core policing and providing a better service to the public.

    The best forces are already doing just that.

    Secondly, there needs to be more support for frontline officers.

    That’s a message you’ve been telling me loud and clear – and I’m listening.

    We know that the most important assets in our police system are human, and that for our police to be productive and as effective as they should be, officers need to be fully engaged and they need to feel very positive about their work.

    That’s why I’m supporting a range of measures – some of which I described earlier – to support officer physical and mental health and wellbeing.

    We’ve also launched our Frontline Review to hear what frontline officers and staff really think.

    I’m really pleased with the level of engagement so far.

    But the work on this doesn’t start and end with the government.

    In fact, you are instrumental in ensuring your teams have their say on what matters to them.

    You can also help to make sure your staff have access to the best training opportunities, and that your forces are supportive environments.

    I know that many Chief Constables are doing just that, providing excellent support to frontline officers.

    For example, Chief Constable Kier Pritchard in Wiltshire made sure that officers affected by the Salisbury incident received the support they needed.

    He also encouraged staff to come forward by being open and vocal about the trauma support he had received himself during this difficult time.

    You also have the power to build forces which better reflect the communities they serve by increasing diversity.

    Forces including Bedfordshire, West Midlands and Greater Manchester have already been leading the way.

    Thirdly, we need to build a smarter and better police system which is more collaborative, more innovative, more tech-savvy and less fragmented.

    We have 43 different forces and all too often it can feel like each has a different way of working and that there is sometimes a lack of join-up.

    Together, we can change this.

    The College of Policing is critical in building better standards of collaboration.

    Collaboration is important to make smart use of better resources.

    So I’m pleased to see we have two Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners in Essex and Staffordshire, and more to follow, who are well placed to drive even greater collaboration between police and fire.

    We also have joint dog units and shared major crime and road policing teams.

    And furthermore, tomorrow we’ll be publishing our new Serious and Organised Crime Strategy which promotes collaboration between Regional Organised Crime Units, the National Crime Agency and local forces.

    All of this is the sort of work that I would like to see more of and I will be working with you all on in the coming months.

    Finally and most importantly, I think there needs to be more of an emphasis on crime prevention.

    You’ve told us that the police system is becoming too reactive and not prioritising prevention as much as you would like to see.

    The 2017 inspectorate report stated that too many forces did not see crime prevention as a priority and some did not have a plan.

    We should remind ourselves of Sir Robert Peel’s words back in 1829 about the objectives of policing.

    He said “it should be understood at the outset that the object to be obtained is the prevention of crime”.

    His words, of course, are still very relevant today.

    I’m pleased to say there has already been some fantastic collaborative work on prevention.

    For example, we all worked together – the government, police, industry, civil society groups and other partners – to develop a comprehensive action plan to prevent moped crime here in the capital.

    Thanks to this, moped crime is down by a half since its peak in July 2017.

    You’ll now be using the same methods to tackle vehicle crime all over the country.

    Prevention is also a part of our approach to tackling serious violent crime.

    And I encourage you as leaders to work with us to get our police system prioritising crime prevention wherever you can.

    I’ve spoken quite a bit about the important role that I think you can play in future policing.

    I truly believe that good leadership can make a real difference.

    People voted for you in elections and they supported your careers all the way to the top.

    Now I want you to press on with making the changes needed to make our police system more effective.

    This government will help and support you all the way.

    I believe everything I’ve said today is consistent with your vision 2025.

    We need a fresh look at resources.

    We need more proactive crime prevention.

    We need to more police capacity.

    We need to better support frontline officers.

    You have my full support and you always will.

    Thank you.

  • Matt Hancock – 2018 Speech to Royal College of Nursing

    Below is the text of the speech made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, at the Royal College of Nursing on 31 October 2018.

    There’s a reason nurses are so close to the nation’s heart: because you are there for us when we need you.

    And there’s a reason nurses are so close to my heart. My grandmother was a nurse. She was there when the NHS was born. And she remained a nurse until she died.

    For we all know you never stop being a nurse. Not when you leave work. Not when you’re at home. Not when you retire. You’re the one who looks after your family’s health.

    You’re a nurse because you have the commitment that has shaped this noblest of professions since Florence Nightingale: compassion, cool heads, caring for others no matter how bad the situation, no matter how bleak the prognosis.

    Today, I want to talk about our support for nurses, how we need more nurses, and how we’ve got a plan to make that happen.

    But as well as that, I want to address one question head on: how could anyone hit a nurse?

    It beggars belief that anyone could even think of attacking a nurse, or a doctor, or paramedic, or emergency worker of any kind, as they go about their jobs of public service. Any attack on a nurse, or an emergency worker, is an attack too many.

    And I know I am not alone. There is overwhelming public support for the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act we have brought into law.

    It is absolutely right that anyone who assaults an emergency worker faces tougher penalties and longer prison sentences. Because an assault on you is an assault on us ‒ and we will not tolerate it.

    So, today I want to talk about how we can tackle violence against nurses and our NHS staff. But it’s not the only thing I want to talk about. Because I believe that increasing violence, bullying and harassment against our NHS staff is just one symptom of a system in need of change. A system I am determined to improve.

    So let us ask: how are we going to tackle violence against NHS staff?

    Now, I must pay tribute to Chris Bryant for all his work on bringing about this new legislation. The support for his Private Members’ Bill, from every part of the House of Commons, shows what an important and unifying issue this is.

    And I must pay tribute to all the work the RCN has done in calling for this legislation, and then helping us to shape it so that all nurses delivering NHS care, wherever they work and whoever they work for, are protected by this new law. It was the right thing to do. We listened to you, and we did it.

    But legislation is just the start, so today I am launching the first ever NHS violence reduction strategy to protect our NHS workforce against deliberate violence and aggression from patients and the public.

    I have made it my personal mission to ensure NHS staff feel safe and secure at work and the new strategy, created together with the Social Partnership Forum, will take a zero-tolerance approach to attacks and assaults against our staff.

    I want my department to work with the NHS, police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Social Partnership Forum and the RCN to ensure this strategy succeeds so the new law works for you. So you can easily report any incident, so every incident is taken seriously and investigated fully, and so the ‒ often difficult ‒ process of giving evidence doesn’t create more work for you.

    The NHS has a duty of care to its patients and its staff. So the CQC will scrutinise NHS trusts’ violence reduction plans as part of their inspection regime. This isn’t about penalising people, but identifying which trusts need support to reduce violence against staff, whether that’s by better building design or improved procedures.

    Along with more effective and quicker prosecutions, greater scrutiny and accountability, we’re also looking at how we can get better data ‒ and how we can make better use of that data to identify high-risk jobs and areas.

    So, we’re working with NHS providers to develop a new way of recording assaults and other incidents of abuse or harassment. That way we can better understand the scale of the problem and the solutions we need to devise, because a ‘one size fits all’ approach isn’t going to solve this.

    We know that while paramedics may face the greatest danger from drunk young men at kicking-out time on a Friday or Saturday night, that isn’t true for a nurse in a mental health trust where most violent incidents occur between 10 and 11 in the morning. Or in the acute sector, where those most likely to be responsible for assaults are aged 75 or over.

    We also know that many assaults are carried out by people with dementia, brain injuries or other mental health issues. So prosecution isn’t always appropriate or in the best interests of patients or staff.

    But together with more effective prosecution and better data, we also need to improve staff training and staff support. The current training in de-escalation and conflict resolution will be reviewed and revised.

    And, we’re listening to you about the type of support you need. Since launching the #TalkHealthCare public platform in September we have received many new ideas about how we can improve the work environment.

    I would urge anyone who has not done so already to share your ideas: your voice will be heard and acted on.

    We must work together to solve this, and make the NHS live up to the promise I know it can be: the best place to work in the world.

    Tackling violence alone won’t do that. That brings me to nursing numbers and morale, which we all know are inextricably linked, but let me take each in turn.

    Numbers. Simply put: we need more. And that means more permanent nurses, not more agency workers.

    We need a long-term solution that provides the full benefits of NHS employment and makes financial sense for NHS employers.

    To create a steady stream of talent we increased the number of training places available for nurses and doctors. There are now more than 52,000 nurses in training, and we have made more funding available to increase the number of training places available to universities.

    Now, I know some have been looking back to the old bursary model, but it was in effect a cap on the numbers of people who could enter the profession each year. The latest figures show there were more applications than available places this year.

    But we know there is more work to do with universities to get the right people on to the right courses, and to open up the profession to people from all backgrounds, and ensure they get the support they need to complete their training so they can serve in our NHS.

    That is something we will specifically address in the long-term plan for the NHS, but we are also taking action in the short term.

    We’re helping providers to recruit from abroad by removing doctors and nurses from the cap on tier 2 visas. That’s good for the NHS and good for the country.

    Health Education England’s ‘earn, learn, return’ schemes are helping overseas nurses come to the UK, contribute to the NHS and take back what they’ve learned to help their communities.

    And, this isn’t just about recruiting more, it’s about holding on to the excellent and experienced people we already have by making their working lives easier and more fulfilling.

    Because we can’t go back, we must go forward. I want to work with you on what measures we can take now to get more people into the wonderful profession of nursing.

    So we will listen to you; we will work with you. This will involve new money, new ideas, and new ways of working.

    The budget allocated £20 billion more each year to the NHS, and repairs and patching up the old system isn’t going to cut it. Not if we’re to meet the unprecedented challenge of an ageing society. Not if we’re to harness the game-changing potential promised by artificial intelligence and genomics.

    It’s time to trade in the family car for a newer model ‒ one that’s got room for everyone. But one that’s safer, better and more efficient.

    I want you to come with me on this journey because out of my top 3 priorities – tech, prevention, workforce – workforce is the most important.

    That means ensuring you feel recognised and valued. That your concerns are addressed and your voices heard.

    Morale matters, which is the final thing I want to talk about.

    It matters not only because it’s better for you to feel happy and fulfilled at work. It matters because it’s better for patients too. Both in terms of the treatment they receive and their outcomes.

    So, it’s not right that nearly 4 in 10 of you reported feeling unwell due to work-related stress last year. And it’s not right that more than half of you said you came into work sick because you felt under pressure to do so.

    I want this to change. As well as the numbers, it means getting the small things right:

    ensuring you have adequate time for rest and recovery
    that there’s somewhere you can go to, someone you can talk to, if you need help
    that we have the best, most up-to-date technology available to cut your workload and make your lives easier
    These are all things I am pushing for. And I want you to push me, and my department, if you feel we need to do more.

    But, I also have a challenge for you. Something we have failed to address ‒ something vital not just for morale, but that underpins the universal treatment principle on which the NHS was founded: we, must tackle racial inequality within the nursing profession.

    Too many black and ethnic minority nurses find it too hard to progress in their careers. Too many black and ethnic minority nurses are paid less than their white counterparts. And too many nurses encounter bias or discrimination because of the colour of their skin, or where they come from.

    This is indefensible. It runs counter to the values of the NHS we love, and it must change.

    I believe in equality of opportunity and embracing diversity with every fibre of my being. I believe in it, not just because of fairness and because it’s the right thing to do, but because of the benefits it brings.

    And the data proves it. The Workforce Race Equality Standard numbers show that progress on tackling racial equality has a positive impact for all staff.

    Research by Professor Michael West shows that the experience of black and ethnic minority ethnic staff is a good barometer of the climate of respect and care for all staff within the NHS.

    We see it in some of the best trusts. By making continuous improvements for BME staff, trusts have seen similar improvements for their entire workforce.

    Those are the benefits of racial equality, of embracing diversity rather than merely tolerating it. Those are the changes I want to see, and my challenge to you.

    I will work with you to tackle violence. I will work with you to increase nursing numbers. I will work with you to improve morale and give you all the support that you need.

    Let us work together to build a nursing profession, and an NHS in which we can all take pride.

  • Jeremy Hunt – 2018 Speech at Policy Exchange

    Below is the text of the speech made by Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, at Policy Exchange on 31 October 2018.

    In 1826, my predecessor Foreign Secretary George Canning described the global balance of power as a “standard perpetually varying, as civilisation advances, and as new nations spring up and take their place among established political communities”.

    This was an era when South American countries were seizing independence from Spain and Portugal. The New World was beginning to upset the balance of the Old and Canning saw an opportunity for Britain. An opportunity to rethink British diplomacy, to seek new allies across the Atlantic, and thwart old foes France and Spain.

    Canning had his own bed in the Foreign Office and when not lying in it complaining about his gout, he ordered British emissaries to sign trade agreements with Mexico and Colombia.

    Times have changed. I have no bed in the Foreign Office and I am happy to inform you that I don’t have gout either. Well, at least not yet.

    But this country is at a pivotal, historic moment. The global balance of power is shifting once more and Post-Brexit, our place within it as well.

    And whilst at the same time our democratic values are arguably under greater threat than at any time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, I want to argue today that we can use our influence, our reach and power to defend our values by becoming an invisible chain that links the world’s democracies.

    Why we should reassess our global role

    With the backdrop of Brexit, there is no doubt that our role has to change.

    It is a legal and structural change it will have a profound impact on our foreign policy and whilst our commitment to European security remains unbreakable, the nature of our relationship with our closest neighbours will naturally change and we need to ensure this is a change for the better, not the worse.

    But it isn’t just Brexit that’s causing change, other events are even more significant. Let’s just take 3 examples:

    First: the rise of China and the Asian powerhouse economies. Their growth alters the balance of power with all the speed Canning foretold.

    In 1980, China comprised just 2% of the world economy. Today its 15%. By 2030, China is set to overtake the United States as the biggest economy in the world. By 2050, the combined economies of China and India will exceed the GDPs of the entire G7 – the US, UK, Japan, France, Germany, Canada and Italy – put together.

    Power always follows money so we must not underestimate the profound impact this will have.

    Secondly there is a growing threat to democracy and democratic values. It’s now clear that the spread of democracy has slowed, gradually come to a halt, in some respects even gone into reverse.

    We may be suffering what the scholar Larry Diamond described as “a democratic recession”. Last year, according to Freedom House, 71 countries suffered “net declines in political rights and civil liberties” and this is a reversal of what seemed like the inevitable onward march of democracy and democratic values after the lifting of the Iron Curtain.

    It is of more than symbolic importance that by 2030, for the first time in our lifetimes the world’s largest economy will not be a democracy and then we have to factor in something else, the growing threats to the long-established, rules-based international order.

    It is not just within countries that we see change taking place. The interaction between countries is changing too.

    Having a rules-based international order has made us more prosperous and successful than ever before in the history of humanity. But it is now openly questioned.

    Chemical weapons have been used to lethal effect in Syria and for the first time in our history, they have been used on the streets of Britain too.

    Free trade is under threat with the World Trade Organisation facing the most severe challenge in its history. If new trade barriers were to appear after Brexit, that would make things even worse.

    The international order that has existed since 1945 was, in large measure, a creation of Britain and its allies.

    At its heart was a simple credo: namely that the best way to create stability was to build a system where might is not automatically right, and one where every country, large or small, lives under the protection and security of the UN Charter.

    By and large, it succeeded: for the first time in history, the bleak vision of Thucydides, that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”, was no longer always automatically valid. The United Kingdom with its Empire declining and the United States in its ascendancy determined to find a better way. And through a pattern of alliances and multilateral organisations, that vision came into plain sight.

    But today that system is under threat. A new order is rising alongside the old. The democratic values that once bound us together are threatened. The post-war international order that we built to defend them is being questioned. And people are turning to its architects and asking: “what now?”

    In Britain, we’ve got to ask ourselves the same: what’s our plan? What’s our role? How can we strengthen and defend our way of life and the values we believe in?

    Britain’s future role

    To start, we must build on the strengths that are rooted in our national character.

    We are the home of parliamentary democracy. We have a profound belief in this country’s institutions that allow the peaceful transfer of political power.

    As an outward-looking, seafaring nation, we have long known how to build alliances in every corner of the globe. As a country endowed with the best universities, scientists, engineers, artists and authors – alongside, of course, the world’s language – we have immense reserves of soft power.

    We have kept our promise to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid, giving this country the third biggest development budget in the world and our history has also created special bonds with the most powerful democracy, the United States, and the world’s largest democracy, India.

    We have the closest of relationships with other parts of the English-speaking world, from Ireland to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

    The success of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting this year in London, one of the biggest ever gatherings of its kind, also shows the enduring strength of our friendships within the world’s most important north-south alliance.

    Our network of friendships is unparalleled. But it’s underpinned by something more than shared history, shared language or shared culture.

    Those friendships are underpinned by the values – democracy, the rule of law, separation of powers, respect for individual civil and political rights, a belief in free trade – bind us. And when those values are under threat, Britain’s role – I would argue – is to defend them.

    Which is why to do so, we must become an invisible chain linking the world’s democracies.

    And we can have confidence that such an approach will work because alliances built on shared values are always more durable than those based on transactional convenience.

    We must remember that the impressive progress of modern history has happened not by accident but by design. Its continued success can’t be taken for granted. So it is up to us to strengthen our resolve, make the most of our unique position and forge an unbreakable chain that will hold those vital values that link our countries.

    Raising our diplomatic game

    So how do we do this?

    First, we must reinvigorate and expand British diplomacy. In the past you may have heard of retrenchment and retreat. Not any more.

    Today, I am announcing the biggest expansion of Britain’s diplomatic network for a generation, including 12 new Posts and nearly 1,000 more personnel.

    I can confirm that by the end of next year, we will open six new High Commissions in Lesotho, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), the Bahamas, Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu.

    We will base new Resident Commissioners in Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, and St Vincent & the Grenadines (nice job for someone).

    We will upgrade the British Office in Chad to a full Embassy and establish a new British mission to the headquarters of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in Jakarta.

    Thereafter, we will open new British embassies in Djibouti and Niger.

    By the end of 2020, we will send 335 more British diplomats overseas, and reinforce the Foreign Office in London with another 328 personnel. We will hire another 329 locally-engaged staff in our embassies around the world.

    In total, our network will gain 992 extra people, meaning we are represented in 160 countries – of the 192 countries of the UN, that’s the same as France and only marginally less than United States and China.

    At the same time, we will also strengthen our skills and expertise.

    Over the next 5 years we will build on William Hague’s far-sighted decision to reopen the Foreign Office Language School by increasing the number of languages taught from 50 to 70. The 20 new languages will vary from the Central Asian tongues of Kazakh and Kyrgyz, to Shona in Zimbabwe and Gujarati in India.

    Within the next 10 years, we will double the number of British diplomats who speak a foreign language in the country where they serve from 500 at present, to 1,000, meaning that getting on for half of our overseas postings will be staffed by linguists.

    We will also broaden the pool of talent we tap into for our Ambassadors.

    As we regain control of our trade policy, it makes sense to open up applications to external candidates, so that 1 or 2 positions every year might be filled by people with important experience from outside the civil service, especially the world of commerce.

    The strength of our network is its professionalism, and that’s what I think has given us what I believe is the finest diplomatic service in the world. But we must never close our eyes to the approaches and skills of other industries.

    I am sure there are experienced, multi-lingual businesspeople who would welcome the chance to enter the service of their country at this critical time and the Foreign Office of the future will welcome them to some of our key Ambassadorial posts.

    We will also ensure that those who champion Britain abroad better represent the country they serve.

    So this year we launched a new university outreach programme, visiting every part of Britain, to encourage applications from under-represented groups. This includes not just women and BAME candidates, but also those from backgrounds that have not traditionally felt comfortable applying for a career in the service.

    Finally, a small but I think important detail, is something that indicates how I intend our diplomacy to develop. When I arrived, we had secure phone connections in my office to the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. I have now added Japan, France and Germany to the list.

    It means a lot more technology in my office than in Canning’s day – but also allows for the strengthening of important alliances that he would have thoroughly approved.

    Diplomacy with a purpose

    Taken together, this amounts to a considerable investment in our service, its capacity and its future. Adding links to the chain that will allow us to play our part in uniting those countries who share our values.

    Now we must use that network to get to work.

    First, we must redouble our efforts to defend the rules-based international order. To do that, we need multilateral organisations that are fit for purpose. Reforming out-dated and bureaucratic structures is the best way to make sure the institutions they serve do not collapse.

    That means delivering UN reform, as advocated by UN Secretary General Guterres.

    It means fairer burden-sharing in NATO, which continues to be the bedrock of European security.

    It means WTO reform, so that we succeed in warding off the dangerous temptations of protectionism.

    It means reforming the World Bank, so its governance reflects the changing balance of the global economy.

    And it means reforming the structures of the Commonwealth, so there is proper accountability for the Secretariat and a more effective decision-making process.

    To strengthen that invisible chain between the democracies, we must also ensure we are better at acting in concert when we face real and present threats.

    That was shown to great effect after the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Then, far from buckling in the face of Russian aggression, 28 democracies came together and expelled 153 Russian spies. The biggest coordinated expulsion in the history of diplomacy.

    When we act in concert, we are strong. When we act together, the price for transgression becomes too high for the perpetrator.

    But this nimbleness of response often eludes us. So I want our fine diplomats to find a way to do this more effectively. And that means going beyond traditional diplomacy focused on other governments and creating new partnerships, including with the private sector.

    Nor is it solely when we face security threats that we should strengthen the chains that connect like-minded countries.

    We must be better at standing together to defend the values we share. Whether that is: the prevention of sexual violence in conflict, the struggle against the illegal wildlife trade, or threats to freedom of expression.

    Because access to fair and accurate information is also something we should remember is the lifeblood of democracy.

    For that reason – and prompted in no small part by the tragic killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi – I am placing the resources of the Foreign Office behind the cause of media freedom. This campaign will be marked by a major international conference on media freedom that I will host in London next year.

    And finally, as we strengthen our diplomatic efforts, we must never forget the importance of speaking from a position of strength.

    Soft power matters but it is immensely more effective when backed up by hard power. In the last resort, we need to be able to call on our fine armed forces, whose importance was recognised by new funding in the Budget this week.

    So we will continue to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence, and we will replace our independent nuclear deterrent. And we will continue to call on others in NATO to play their part too.

    Conclusion

    Almost 200 years on, Canning’s law still holds: new nations rise and the global order changes. The apparently inevitable progress of democracy since the fall of the Berlin Wall is no more.

    Like Canning we must seize the opportunities that present themselves within the tumult. We must work to strengthen and defend our values across the globe.

    And as we face our post-Brexit future, Britain has a role to play. It is one that we are uniquely suited to deliver. Remembering our responsibilities. Not overstating our strength, but not understating it either. Because right now our history, our networks and our unique combination of soft and hard power gives us a real ability to shape the course of history in line with our values.

    So let’s play our part helping to build that invisible chain between those who share our values. And make it as strong and resilient as it needs to be as new nations rise and the world order is challenged anew.

  • David Gauke – 2018 Speech on Prisons

    Below is the text of the speech made by David Gauke, the Secretary of State for Justice, at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and the National Police Chiefs Council at the 2018 Partnership Summit on 1 November 2018.

    Introduction

    It’s a great pleasure to be here – I’m grateful to the Association and Council for inviting me to speak to you today.

    I want to start by saying thank you.

    Thank you for everything you and your teams do every day to reduce and prevent crime, to keep people safe – and feeling safe – in their communities.

    Your work, your dedication, your sense of public duty, is part of the reason the police continues to be one of the most trusted professions in our country.

    As the son of a police officer, I understand some of the difficulties and challenges that go with the job. Growing up, I soon learned about how the police had to put themselves in physical danger, had to drop everything in order to respond to an emergency, had to take responsibility when things got difficult. And the sense that society as a whole did not – could not – fully appreciate the nature of the role. So thank you.

    The justice system

    We talk a lot – and hear a lot – about ‘the justice system’. That system is in fact a web of connected and interacting agencies, organisations and professions.

    What happens in one part of the system can have a direct impact on another – and there is much we can share and learn from each other in different parts of that system.

    That’s why partnerships and collaboration, as exemplified by this summit, are so important if we are to rise to the modern-day challenges facing policing and justice.

    One of the main challenges is the changing nature of crime. The technology and innovation that is transforming our lives for the better is also creating opportunities for criminals. I will come, in a moment, to some of the particular threats we face in our prisons.

    But these new developments can frustrate our collective ability to ensure that justice is done – particularly when those crimes are complex, highly organised, and use methods that simply were not around 10 or even 5 years ago.

    So it is important that we continue to work together to tackle the emerging, as well as the enduring, challenges head on; to find smarter and more joined-up ways of working.

    Justice devolution: role of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC’s)

    The need for that kind of approach is one of the reasons this government is proud to have played a role in establishing the offices of democratically-elected Police and Crime Commissioners across the country.

    The unique nature of your role allows you to view crime across the whole justice system in a way that is also rooted in your local area, as I see in Hertfordshire so often.

    In meeting many of you, what has struck me is your passion for, understanding of, and dedication to, your local areas and the people who live there.

    That’s exactly what these posts are all about – helping to deliver local results that are accountable to local communities.

    A really important role you have is around delivering victim and witness services – it’s a role I know you care a lot about and are ambitious for.

    For example, we’re seeing some PCCs take steps to improve monitoring of compliance with the Victims Code, as well as some PCCs developing innovative approaches to delivering services for victims.

    Take for example the work of Northumbria and Cambridgeshire who have developed single points of contact for victims and are bringing services together to reduce the need for victims to go through the ordeal of re-telling their story.

    I know other PCCs are taking a similar direction too.

    I’d like to thank the APCC and the NPCC for working closely with the Ministry of Justice on our recent Victims Strategy – and now helping us to deliver on the commitments in the Strategy.

    For example, we’re working with you on improving the information sent to victims and I know the NPCC lead for victims and witnesses, Assistant Chief Constable Emma Barnett, has set up a cross-agency group to look at the commitment in the strategy around simplifying the justice experience of victims.

    I know all PCC areas have also been working closely with us to make sure the right support is in place in the event of a major crime incident such as a terrorist attack. This will ensure that wherever a crime occurs, and wherever the victims and families live, they will be referred to the support they need.

    These are good examples of the work you do to bring together local partners and ensure the justice system as a whole meets the needs of communities. It’s why we committed in our manifesto to strengthen and enhance the office of PCCs.

    Both the Ministry of Justice and Home Office are already working very closely with you – and we’re making good progress in some important areas.

    The work we’re doing in cities like Manchester and London is showing what can be done, and I will be taking a very close interest in the results.

    Emerging data from places like Manchester shows that a whole system approach is associated with a 40% reduction in adult women being handed immediate custodial sentences, compared to a reduction of just 3% across England and Wales.

    Any future changes will, of course, need to be considered carefully and some areas are rightly out of bounds – the role of PCCs needs to respect judicial and prosecutorial independence, for example.

    But I think it is absolutely right that we look at areas where an enhanced role for PCCs could improve the justice system.

    To that end, we’re also working closely with you following our recent consultation on the future of probation and the expanded role that PCCs can play.

    I had the pleasure of meeting with a cross-party group of PCCs to discuss some of our proposals, and we have committed to further engagement over the coming months as we develop and refine our ideas.

    Tackling crime in prisons is tackling crime on our streets

    When we look at overall justice outcomes, I think it’s important to look at the strategic position prisons have in terms of crime.

    I believe prisons have emerged as a new front line in the fight against crime.

    The fact is, new technology and sophisticated approaches mean that prison walls alone are no longer effective in stopping crime – inside or outside of prison.

    Offenders who commit crime in prison have a disruptive, and often, devastating impact on the prospects of those who are trying to turn their lives around and who see prison as a pivotal turning-point in their lives.

    But the impact of that crime not only affects prison staff and fellow prisoners, but reaches far beyond the prison gate. While offenders are rightly separated from society, prisons exist within communities.

    There is a direct link between crime on the wings and landings and crime in our towns and cities. Ensuring there is less crime in our prisons means less crime in communities.

    Crime is being fuelled by organised gangs and networks who see prisons as a highly lucrative and literally captive market to push drugs like Spice, as well as mobile phones and other contraband into prisons. This creates a thriving illicit economy within a prison.

    As a result, we are seeing high levels of violence as individuals and groups vie for control of this internal market and enforce drug debts. Not to mention the effect the drugs themselves have in terms of violence. The availability of illicit mobile phones means more prisoners are committing online fraud and money laundering; harassing, extorting and threatening members of the public and grooming and victimising innocent people on social media – all from inside prison.

    Of course, if you’re a victim of crime, you don’t necessarily care about the type of criminal network behind it, or that it was committed from inside a prison. You see it as a crime – and you want justice to be done and for it not to happen to someone else.

    Whether a crime is committed on a prison landing or in the street, in a cell or in a shop – it is a crime. One of the primary purposes of prison is the protection of the public. We cannot allow our prisons to become incubators of crime. That puts prison officers and prisoners at risk, undermines rehabilitation and ultimately makes our streets less safe.

    Joint approaches to disrupting crime in prison

    That’s why we have been taking measures to make our prisons safer, crack down on the criminal gangs exploiting our prisons and we have been denying prisoners the space and means to prey on innocent – and often vulnerable – members of the public.

    As announced in the Budget on Monday, we will spend an extra £30 million this financial year, on top of the £40 million we announced over the summer, to further improve decency, safety and security in prisons.

    The Budget also provided funding for a new prison at Glen Parva in Leicestershire that will help us towards delivering on our commitment to building up to 10,000 new decent prison places.

    But as well as investment, creating safer prisons relies on multiple agencies working together in a coordinated way.

    Let me give you a specific example.

    Earlier this year, a highly dangerous criminal with significant influence in an East Midlands prison came to the attention of the Prison Service’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit and the police.

    During his time in prison, he was involved in the trade of drugs, assaulted prison staff and prisoners and was frequently found with improvised weapons.

    Collaboration between the prison and police made the difference here: it meant that we were able to seize illegal mobile phones which disrupted his criminal activity and resulted in charges being brought and his sentence extended.

    With this sort of joint work between police and the prison, he will find it a much tougher place to continue criminality.

    And last year, it was also through a joint operation by prison intelligence officers and police that, together, we broke up a major organised crime gang that used drones to smuggle £1.2 million worth of drugs, weapons and mobile phones into prisons across the UK.

    In the last few weeks, more joint operational work has led to a further 15 members of this gang receiving prison sentences of up to 10 years.

    I want to build on these successes by following and targeting the money behind the gangs.

    The Financial Investigations Unit I announced last month will track and seize the money that criminal kingpins use to deal drugs in prison – with police from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit embedded within it, bringing their expertise and powers.

    And today, the government has announced its updated Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, which sets out how we will relentlessly disrupt the activities of high priority offenders, whether they are being investigated by the police, or managed by prisons or probation.

    Approaches to dealing with crime in prison

    It is right that we focus on this kind of intelligence-led and joint approach. But when crime does occur, we should be clear about how it will be dealt with and that those responsible are brought to justice.

    One of the most despicable crimes we see in prisons are attacks on prison officers. Over the last 3 years there has been a 59% increase in assaults on prison staff.

    That is shocking and sickening.

    Let me be clear: an attack on a prison officer – or a police officer, or an ambulance worker, on NHS staff, fire officers or other emergency workers – is an attack on all of us.

    That’s why I’m pleased we’ve changed the law and doubled the maximum sentence for attacking an emergency worker, including prison officers.

    This will send a clear message that assaults on those who serve and protect the public will not be tolerated and they will feel the full force of the law.

    Alongside changes to the law, we are taking steps to make the fullest use of the powers available to your forces, the CPS and the courts.

    When a prison officer is attacked, the suspected perpetrator may well be moved to another prison later and as a result another police force.

    This can cause delays and disruption to an investigation so, through close joint working between police and prisons, a new Memorandum of Understanding will make sure that police forces provide mutual assistance to each other when interviewing prisoner suspects.

    Over the last few months we have been working with the police and CPS to revise and re-issue the cross-agency protocol on how crimes in prison should be handled. The updated protocol will set the standard for how we tackle crimes committed in prison in the future.

    We are also investing in the training prison officers receive so they are able to collect and catalogue the evidence that is so crucial to prosecuting crimes in prison successfully.

    Collaborative models

    These are important practical measures, but we must also look more fundamentally at the models for policing our prisons.

    I know there are a number of operating models already being used by some police forces, including having a single point of contact for the prison or dedicated investigative officers. As a result, there is some really encouraging work going in some parts of the country.

    I want to particularly highlight the new unit set up within Greater Manchester Police. The unit is made up of police officers and detectives, supported by two lawyers from the CPS, who are dedicated solely to investigating crimes that take place inside HMP Manchester.

    Of course, this approach won’t be right in every area. There needs to be a tailored approach to cutting crime in prisons. But as you look at your own responses, I know you will come up with new and innovative ways of doing it that can then be replicated in other areas across the country.

    Conclusion

    Tackling this new frontier of crime in prisons doesn’t just keep prison officers and prisoners safe from harm, it keeps all of us safer – in the short term and the long term. It is vital for rehabilitation and to give those offenders who want to turn their back on crime the best chance possible to do so. But we will only be successful if we continue to embrace a spirit of collaboration that has been the hallmark of the successes we have already seen.

    I would like to take the opportunity to re-affirm my commitment to working with you in that spirit on tackling crime from within prison, but also as we strive for better outcomes across the criminal justice system.

    As PCCs continue to cement their place in the justice system, I am proud of the role this government has played in establishing and supporting them and I am confident that there is an even greater role for you to play in the future. I look forward to exploring the possibilities with you.

    In closing, let me reiterate my thanks – not just for the work you are doing with us at the Ministry of Justice but the work you do every day to protect the public from crime.

  • Chris Grayling – 2018 Speech on Airports

    Below is the text of the speech made by Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Transport, on 29 October 2018.

    Good morning everyone.

    It’s a real pleasure to join you again for your annual conference.

    And to start what I’m sure will be a day and a half of stimulating debate.

    When the AOA was first formed in 1934, the conference’s theme – the Airport of the Future – might have been an equally apt topic.

    But a keynote speaker 84 years ago would have needed a vivid imagination to predict the airports of the 21st century.

    Who would have dreamt that Gatwick, a former horse racing track, would become Britain’s second busiest airport?

    Or a couple of farms and a vicarage in leafy Cheshire would be transformed into Manchester Airport – with flights to every corner of the globe?

    Or that a collection of fields would one day make way for Birmingham Airport – now the Midlands’ gateway to the world.

    So Britain’s airports have undergone a remarkable change within a single lifespan – transformed from their early roots to the incredibly successful and safe industry represented in this room today.

    Importance of industry

    An airports industry that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs.

    That every week directly generates £270 million for the UK economy.

    And that plays a vital role in attracting inward investment to our country by connecting businesses at home and overseas.

    You are the reason why Britain today has the third largest aviation network in the world.

    Why we imported and exported £170 billion of air freight last year to countries outside the EU.

    Why passenger numbers have surged by 64 million in just 5 years.

    With 284 million people passing through our airports in 2017.

    And recent events have shown that the pace of change in the airport sector is accelerating.

    We’ve ended decades of dithering over Heathrow expansion with overwhelming support in Parliament for the National Policy Statement.

    There is massive investment going into airports around the country.

    At Manchester, Luton and Leeds Bradford for example.

    And you’ve rolled out new routes to cities in some of the fastest growing parts of the world – for instance the Middle East and China.

    Airports are becoming increasingly innovative.

    Finding new and diverse ways to benefit the economies and communities you serve.

    For example hosting business parks, where SMEs can grow with easy connections to markets and suppliers.

    And by providing education and training opportunities to attract more people into aviation careers – as we’re seeing at Stansted.

    And let’s not forget the smaller airports that maintain essential links for more isolated parts of the country.

    From Newquay in Cornwall to Inverness in the Highlands – these busy transport hubs help boost their local economies – making them even more vibrant.

    Brexit

    And it’s absolutely crucial that UK airports continue to thrive after we leave the European Union.

    Of course securing the best possible access to European markets is the ultimate goal of our negotiations.

    And with 164 million passengers travelling between the UK and EU last year – maintaining current agreements on air transport is clearly in the interests of everyone.

    But as we’ve made clear, it’s just common sense that we also plan for all possible scenarios – even if they are unlikely.

    The recent aviation technical notices we released set out the pragmatic approach that the UK would take in the event of a ‘no-deal’ exit.

    Those actions would help avoid disruption to air services, while supporting businesses and consumers. Not just here in the UK, but across Europe.

    We will also continue to seek new and improved bilateral Air Services Agreements with the rest of the world.

    Aiming, as we always have, to improve connectivity, choice and value for money for businesses and consumers.

    We want to continue participation with the European Aviation Safety Agency.

    But whatever the conclusion of negotiations, EU safety rules will be brought into domestic law through the withdrawal act.

    So we look forward to an outcome which not only maintains connectivity, but also allows British aviation to grow and thrive.

    And of course that includes capitalising on new, global opportunities.

    It has never been more important to demonstrate that Britain is open to the world.

    Open to collaboration.

    Open for business.

    And there can be no better way of doing that than through international air connections and our world class aviation industry.

    Aviation strategy and airspace modernisation

    Projections show that 435 million passengers a year could be passing through our airports by 2050.

    Passengers who are a benefit to Britain.

    Boosting tourism.

    Building business relationships across continents.

    Hundreds of millions of opportunities for Britain to grow.

    But we can’t take future success for granted.

    We need a long-term plan for sustainable growth.

    So that we better manage the impact of airport expansion on local communities.

    So that we improve surface access – making journeys to airports quicker, easier and greener.

    So that we address the environmental concerns of growth.

    And consider the passenger in everything we do.

    These things won’t happen on their own.

    They can only be achieved by government and industry working in partnership.

    And that’s why we are developing our aviation strategy.

    A comprehensive, long term vision for the sector up to 2050.

    A vision for enterprise and growth.

    That provides the right framework for the sector to grow responsibly.

    Let me give a couple of examples.

    Just as important as building new infrastructure or making best use of existing runways is how we optimise use of our skies.

    As air traffic grows, modernisation of airspace is an increasingly pressing issue.

    We need to get it right, for the benefit of the industry, passengers, and communities living under flight paths.

    We’ve already made good progress on this front with the publication of our airspace change framework last year.

    And as part of the aviation strategy we will be examining whether further policy is needed to support these changes.

    But we need your help and engagement too.

    To help us make best use of airspace.

    And growth cannot take place without considering the environment and local communities.

    Our recent Airports National Policy Statement highlights the government’s expectation that expansion will be supported by a strong package of environmental and community mitigations.

    And the forthcoming aviation green paper will set out proposals to enable sustainable growth across the country.

    But to do those things we need you to work with local neighbourhoods, the government and each other to the benefit of every airport across the UK network.

    And ultimately to the benefit of passengers.

    That’s what the aviation strategy is all about.

    We have to look at every stage of the passenger journey.

    Analyse key trends, and examine how airports can continue to respond to travellers’ changing needs.

    For while you generally do a great job at innovating to meet new customer demands.

    For instance your investment in new screening technologies that could speed up passengers’ journey through security.

    There is still more to be done to ensure all consumers can travel with confidence.

    Inclusive travel and borders

    Like providing full accessibility, for instance.

    Last year there were 3 million requests for assistive services in airports – a leap of two thirds in 6 years.

    And our aging population means demand is likely to further grow.

    There’s already been some excellent progress.

    This year 16 airports, including Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and Derry, were rated as very good in the CAA’s accessibility review.

    Up from just 6 in 2017.

    But there are still distressing stories.

    And the CAA reviews have found that some airports still need to make vital improvements.

    So it’s important we all up our game.

    That’s why in July we launched our Inclusive Transport Strategy – to ensure disabled people can travel confidently, easily and at no extra cost.

    And the aviation strategy provides a great opportunity to explore these issues across the airports sector.

    We are considering a range of measures including improved training for airport and airline staff and boosting awareness of assistive services at airports.

    While the CAA has recently released new guidelines on supporting passengers with hidden disabilities.

    In addition it’s vital that we demonstrate that the UK is fully open for business and to the world.

    So we want to limit delays at our borders too.

    As part of the strategy we are working with Border Force on ways of creating a smoother crossing for travellers through passport control.

    Without compromising security.

    And I thank the AOA and the aviation industry for your help so far on this work. Your input has been greatly valued.

    Green paper

    And I know that many of you have already contributed to the strategy‘s development so far.

    But we hope to hear even more from you.

    We will lay out the next steps of its development in a green paper this December (2018).

    To be followed by another consultation period before the final document is published next year.

    So I urge you to participate.

    This will be a great chance to shape the final strategy.

    And an opportunity for us to benefit from your experience and that of your customers.

    I can’t predict what will be top of the agenda at the AOA conference 8 decades from now.

    Or imagine how our airports will look in 2102.

    But I can promise that through the aviation strategy we are looking ahead to the challenges of the coming decades.

    I can tell you that your future in this country is bright.

    And I can guarantee that by working together we will set a course that allows Britain’s airports to continue to flourish.

    Thank you.

  • Nick Gibb – 2018 Statement on Teachers’ Pay Grant

    Below is the text of the statement made by Nick Gibb, the Secretary of State for Education, in the House of Commons on 24 October 2018.

    Today I am confirming the allocations for the teachers’ pay grant for 2018-19.

    The teachers’ pay grant was announced on 24 July by the Secretary of State for Education. This will be worth £508 million in total and will fully fund the 2018-19 ​academic year pay award to the end of the spending review period, over and above the 1% rise schools would have expected and been planning for.

    On 14 September the Department for Education published the rates and high-level methodology for the teachers’ pay grant.

    The grant will be paid to all state-funded schools and academies, including maintained nursery schools. This will be on the basis of pupil numbers in mainstream schools, and place numbers in special schools and other specialist provision. All schools will be funded for at least 100 pupils or 40 places.

    Funding for mainstream schools will be allocated on the basis of pupil numbers and each school will have a specific allocation which cannot be modified by the local authority.

    Local authorities will receive an allocation in respect of specialist provision in their area. This will be based on the number of places in each school, with all schools being funded for at least 40 places. The local authority will have the flexibility to allocate funding to the schools in their area, taking into account the particular circumstance of the schools and following consultation with them.

    Further details and guidance will be published on gov.uk.

  • Theresa May – 2018 Speech on Brexit

    Mr Speaker, before I turn to the European Council, I am sure the whole House will join me in condemning the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in the strongest possible terms.

    We must get to the truth of what happened – and my Rt Hon Friend the Foreign Secretary will be making a statement shortly.

    Mr Speaker, on the European Council, in addition to Brexit, there were important discussions on security and migration.

    First, at last Monday’s Foreign Ministers meeting my Rt Hon Friend the Foreign Secretary and his French counterpart secured agreement on a new EU sanctions regime on the use of chemical weapons.

    At this Council, I argued along with Dutch Prime Minister Rutte that we should also accelerate work on further measures – including sanctions – to respond to and deter cyber-attacks.

    The attempted hacking of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague earlier this year was a stark example of the very real threats we face.

    We must impose costs on all those who seek to do us harm, regardless of the means they use. And this Council agreed to take that work forward.

    Second, in marking anti-slavery day, I welcomed the continued commitment of all EU leaders in working together to eliminate the barbaric crime of people trafficking.

    We reaffirmed our shared commitments to doing more to tackle the challenges of migration upstream.

    Following the Council, I met Premier Li of China, President Moon of South Korea and Prime Minister Lee of Singapore at the ASEM Summit.

    Since 2010, our trade with Asia has grown by almost 50 per cent – more than with any other continent in the world. I want to develop that even further.

    Indeed, Mr Speaker, the ability to develop our own new trade deals is one of the great opportunities of Brexit.

    So at this Summit we discussed how the UK can build the most ambitious economic partnerships with all our Asian partners as we leave the European Union. And we also agreed to deepen our co-operation across shared threats to our security.

    Turning to Brexit, Mr Speaker, let me begin with the progress we have made on both the Withdrawal Agreement and the political declaration on our future relationship.

    As I reported to the House last Monday, the shape of the deal across the vast majority of the Withdrawal Agreement is now clear.

    Since Salzburg we have agreed the broad scope of provisions that set out the governance and dispute resolution arrangements for our Withdrawal Agreement.

    We have developed a Protocol relating to the UK Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus.

    Following discussions with Spain – and in close co-operation with the Government of Gibraltar – we have also developed a Protocol and a set of underlying memoranda relating to Gibraltar, heralding a new era in our relations.

    And we have broad agreement on the structure and scope of the future relationship, with important progress made on issues like security, transport and services.

    And this progress in the last three weeks builds on the areas where we have already reached agreement – on citizens’ rights, on the financial settlement, on the Implementation Period, and in Northern Ireland, agreement on the preservation of the particular rights for UK and Irish citizens – and on the special arrangements between us such as the Common Travel Area, which has existed since before either the UK or Ireland ever became members of the European Economic Community.

    Mr Speaker, taking all of this together, 95 per cent of the Withdrawal Agreement and its protocols are now settled.

    There is one real sticking point left, but a considerable one, which is how we guarantee that – in the unlikely event our future relationship is not in place by the end of the Implementation Period – there is no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

    The commitment to avoiding a hard border is one this House emphatically endorsed and enshrined in law in the Withdrawal Act earlier this year.

    As I set out last week, the original backstop proposal from the EU was one we could not accept, as it would mean creating a customs border down the Irish Sea and breaking up the integrity of our United Kingdom.

    I do not believe that any UK Prime Minister could ever accept this.

    And I certainly will not.

    But as I said in my Mansion House speech: We chose to leave; we have a responsibility to help find a solution. So earlier this year, we put forward a counter-proposal for a temporary UK-EU joint customs territory for the backstop.

    And in a substantial shift in their position since Salzburg, the EU are now actively working with us on this proposal.

    But a number of issues remain.

    The EU argue that they cannot give a legally binding commitment to a UK-wide customs arrangement in the Withdrawal Agreement, so their original proposal must remain a possibility.

    Furthermore, Mr Speaker, people are understandably worried that we could get stuck in a backstop that is designed only to be temporary.

    And there are also concerns that Northern Ireland could be cut off from accessing its most important market – Great Britain.

    During last week’s Council, I had good discussions with Presidents Juncker, Tusk and Macron, Chancellor Merkel and Taoiseach Varadkar and others about how to break this impasse.

    I believe there are four steps we need to take.

    First, we must make the commitment to a temporary UK-EU joint customs territory legally binding, so the Northern Ireland only proposal is no longer needed.

    This would not only protect relations North-South, but also, vitally, East-West.

    This is critical: the relationship between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK is an integral strand of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement. So to protect that Agreement we need to preserve the totality of relationships it sets out.

    Nothing we agree with the EU under Article 50 should risk a return to a hard border, or threaten the delicate constitutional and political arrangements underpinned by the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.

    The second step, is to create an option to extend the Implementation Period as an alternative to the backstop.

    Mr Speaker, I have not committed to extending the Implementation Period.

    I do not want to extend the Implementation Period – and I do not believe that extending it will be necessary.

    I see any extension – or being in any form of backstop – as undesirable. By far the best outcome for the UK, for Ireland and for the EU – is that our future relationship is agreed and in place by 1st January 2021.

    I have every confidence that it will be. And the European Union have said they will show equal commitment to this timetable.

    But the impasse we are trying to resolve is about the insurance policy if this does not happen.

    So what I am saying is that – if at the end of 2020 our future relationship was not quite ready – the proposal is that the UK would be able to make a sovereign choice between the UK-wide customs backstop or a short extension of the Implementation Period.

    And Mr Speaker, there are some limited circumstances in which it could be argued that an extension to the Implementation Period might be preferable, if we were certain it was only for a short time

    For example, a short extension to the Implementation Period would mean only one set of changes for businesses – at the point we move to the future relationship.

    But in any such scenario we would have to be out of this Implementation Period well before the end of this Parliament.

    The third step, Mr Speaker, is to ensure that were we to need either of these insurance policies – whether the backstop or a short extension to the Implementation Period – we could not be kept in either arrangement indefinitely.

    We would not accept a position in which the UK, having negotiated in good faith an agreement which prevents a hard border in Northern Ireland, nonetheless finds itself locked into an alternative, inferior arrangement against our will.

    The fourth step, Mr Speaker, is for the Government to deliver the commitment we have made to ensure full continued access for Northern Ireland’s businesses to the whole of the UK internal market.

    Northern Ireland’s businesses rely heavily on trade with their largest market – Great Britain – and we must protect this in any scenario.

    Mr Speaker, let us remember that all of these steps are about insurance policies that no-one in the UK or the EU wants or expects to use.

    So we cannot let this become the barrier to reaching the future partnership we all want to see.

    We have to explore every possible option to break the impasse and that is what I am doing.

    When I stood in Downing Street and addressed the nation for the first time, I pledged that the government I lead will not be driven by the interests of the privileged few but of ordinary working families.

    And that is what guides me every day in these negotiations.

    Before any decision, I ask: how do I best deliver the Brexit that the British people voted for.

    How do I best take back control of our money, borders and laws.

    How do I best protect jobs and make sure nothing gets in the way of our brilliant entrepreneurs and small businesses.

    And how do I best protect the integrity of our precious United Kingdom, and protect the historic progress we have made in Northern Ireland.

    And, if doing those things means I get difficult days in Brussels, then so be it. The Brexit talks are not about my interests. They are about the national interest – and the interests of the whole of our United Kingdom.

    Serving our national interest will demand that we hold our nerve through these last stages of the negotiations, the hardest part of all.

    It will mean not giving in to those who want to stop Brexit with a politicians vote – politicians telling the people they got it wrong the first time and should try again.

    And it will mean focusing on the prize that lies before us: the great opportunities that we can open up for our country when we clear these final hurdles in the negotiations.

    That is what I am working to achieve. And I commend this Statement to the House.

  • Guy Opperman – 2018 Speech at PLSA Conference

    Below is the text of the speech made by Guy Opperman, the Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, at the Pensions and Lifetimes Savings Association on 18 October 2018.

    Thank you very much indeed, and thank you to the PLSA for inviting me.

    It is good to be back, I’m not quite in Steve Webb territory of repeat appearances but to misquote Mark Twain, rumours of my demise, or the government’s demise have been grossly over-exaggerated.

    As you know, I asked to do this job, I wanted very much to do this particular job and I hope that I will be able to continue and I hope I’ll be coming back next year. And whilst I welcome the chance to be here, I love Liverpool, if you want to hold it somewhere in the true North, rather than somewhere halfway up England then my suggestion is that Hexham is a delightful venue, and really if you haven’t been you should go soon.

    It is very true to say that in the last year we have seen a significant and large number of changes designed – I believe – to improve savers’ experience. In fact, in my last speech last year, I set out a number of those particular matters. But there were a key 4 things that I tried to explain that we were working on.

    The creation of the Single Financial Guidance Body, expansion of auto enrolment, the Defined Benefit white paper and the feasibility study for the Pensions Dashboard.

    Now I’m going to change the habit of every single Pensions Minister for a very long period of time, by setting out not in great detail, auto enrolment, and the many things we’ve done in that area. But I do accept that the dashboard, for example, has taken longer than I would’ve liked. There are good reasons why and I’ll be discussing those later on today.

    When I spoke last year about the Single Financial Guidance Body, this was the first bill that the government brought in after the 2017 General Election. And you may think that we’re all focused on Brexit and other things, but the truth is the first thing the Prime Minister asked us to take through the House of Commons was a bill to provide pensions guidance and to provide financial capability on an ongoing basis.

    So it is something we have worked absolutely hand in glove with the Treasury on, and I’m delighted that we’re up and running. We have, in Hector Sants and John Govett, outstanding leadership for this organisation, we have the new non-executive directors who have been appointed, I’m meeting the organisation on a regular, almost weekly basis, to discuss financial capability generally, and more specifically the long-term strategy they have to take things forward.

    At the same stage, we have taken forward the DB white paper, and we have looked at consolidation on an ongoing basis.

    We have consulted on The Pensions Regulator’s powers, and my apologies, I missed the speech from Lesley earlier today, but the aim of the new powers it seems to me, is quite clearly to enable the regulator to be clearer, quicker and tougher so that they can be more proactive and get involved earlier, and then if necessary, and this should be in exceptional circumstances, punish wrongdoing when employers make changes which could adversely affect their pension scheme.

    We’re currently considering the responses to this consultation along with the feedback, and we are in a position that the publication of the conclusions will be towards the end of this year.

    Now, aside from the DB white paper, we have made changes to legislation this year that have made it easier for DC schemes to move members to a new scheme should they wish to exit the market, or consolidate.

    Fundamentally, and I want to make this clear. I and the government are in favour of consolidation and superfunds. We genuinely believe that big is better and we believe that consolidation within superfunds offers and alternative option for schemes and sponsors that have no realistic option of being able to fund an insurance buyout now or in the foreseeable future.

    We believe that superfunds will not only incentivise sponsors to improve funding levels, but will also reduce the risks created by future employer insolvencies.

    However, whilst we welcome this innovation, we need to ensure it is managed safely. We need to set perimeters and parameters which strike the right balance between enhancing member protection, being affordable for employers and commercially viable.

    Consolidation within superfunds offers an alternative option for schemes and sponsors who have no realistic prospect of being able to fund an insurance buyout now or in the foreseeable future.

    We believe that superfunds will not only incentivise sponsors to improve funding levels, but will also reduce the risks created by future employer insolvency.

    However, whilst we welcome this innovation, we need to ensure it is managed safely. We need to set perimeters and parameters which strike the right balance between enhancing member protection, being affordable for employers and commercially viable.

    Once we have confirmed our position and approach we will of course engage with your good selves and I hope to announce this consultation on DB consolidation very shortly.

    As you’ll see, in this speech, there are an awful lot of consultations coming shortly.

    As you’re aware we set out a range of proposals in the DB white paper. Our intention is to legislate for them as soon as possible; I’ll talk about the statutory process later today.

    I want to talk a little bit more about the TRIG work on reducing transfer times.

    I have been pleased to hear that the PLSA has publicly committed to supporting the work being progressed by the TRIG group.

    I know that many schemes, including personal pensions and master trusts, are already signed up to standards and platforms which allow for routine DC to DC transfers in 10 to 12 days, and I sincerely applaud those industry bodies who have made this commitment.

    However, I do want to take this opportunity now to encourage all pension schemes – specifically those who have not already signed up to any standards or platforms – to adopt this approach. Given that we can fly to the moon in less than a week, given that we can invade the Falkland Islands in about 21 days, it seems to me that 100 days is too long to transfer.

    It is quite clear that there is work to do to ensure there is an equal standard in the industry, and I’m committed to do that.

    But I’m a firm believer in encouraging the industry to lead from the front. So I encourage you all to collaborate and to take action to ensure that those schemes whose performance is lagging behind are encouraged to change their processes.

    As part of that I want to talk about Ruston’s work on Simplified Annual Benefit Statements.

    I want to give my full support to the work the PLSA are doing to develop retirement income targets, and the work Ruston is doing to build agreement across the industry for a Simplified Annual Benefit Statement. I regard this as utterly key.

    One of the key points coming out of our review of automatic enrolment in 2017 was that engaging people in pension saving is a shared responsibility – it’s not just government, it will require government, the industry, the advisory community and employers all having roles to play, and to play them collectively.

    The review called on industry and others to be creative, and to work together, and the PLSA’s work in this area is an example of how that can happen.

    The development of the Simplified Annual Benefit Statement is a testament to what you can do together frankly. I believe it is a simple and more engaging statement focused on user needs. We’ll be hearing more about it in the conference I know, and I’m sharing a stand with Ruston at a later stage today.

    But it’s an example of the industry working together, and I want to thank all the team, and it’s not just Ruston, there’s a huge amount of people that have got behind it, for the work they’ve done.

    We’ve also introduced regulations that will ensure DC pension schemes are more transparent about how much members pay.

    We laid the Administration and Disclosure (Amendment) Regulations in February. Schemes will now have to publish details of all member-borne costs and charges on a rolling basis between this November and next.

    I know there remain a few people who believe that members don’t care about, or won’t understand the costs and charges they pay. But I do think that costs matter and transparency matters. This is not the only thing which matters, but it is a factor. And I’m not aware of any other financial products with uncertain returns where members are not told what it will cost them.

    So, I really want to thank all the members of the Independent Institutional Disclosure Working Group for their work to agree templates for disclosure to pension schemes. But I believe that transparency – sunlight is the best disinfectant – is actually something that will aid all of you.

    I want to turn, if I can, to the issue of sustainable and responsible investments, and the nature of the particular investment.

    I accept that it is a difficult and tricky issue for someone in my position to give an opinion on to independent trustees.

    But the government has also undertaken some important work to clarify on pension schemes and how they invest, specifically when trustees consider their fiduciary duty in relation to environmental, social and governance factors.

    Our recent consultation on this issue attracted more than 3,000 responses. For a pensions consultation that’s a very large number of responses. It is I believe an indication that as more people begin to save, and begin to understand how their pension savings are invested, we could see a significant and realistic step change in the engagement and interest of this new population of savers.

    I believe that investing for social, environmental, economic and climate change issues, remains a topic we should be passionate about. I welcome the work that parts of the industry have done – led by Elizabeth Corley – in creating a culture of social impact investment. I will continue to engage across and beyond government to identify how we might remove barriers and make it easier to invest in a way that supports the sort of world we want to live in, going forward.

    But we’re not just doing that, we’re doing a number of different things in this area, and it merits discussion today. I’m excited about the work that the Treasury, led by my colleague John Glen, with whom I’m working absolutely hand in glove, have contributed on Patient Capital – another group with many representatives of industry from here today bringing forward radical proposals and compelling arguments about how we make it easier to invest in innovative and unlisted firms, and other assets such as unlisted infrastructure.

    As an aside, one of the things I’d like to see pensions schemes do more is to look again at their investment strategies. The DC scheme consolidation is gathering pace as we know. This means we will have larger master trusts who will increasingly be free to move beyond equities, gilts and bonds – important as those assets are – and to start to look at investing directly in firms, in infrastructure, in housing, and in a different way frankly to how they have on a traditional basis.

    This is something that I wish the industry to consider, to look at and it’s certainly something I’m discussing with industry on an ongoing basis. In the meantime, the department will be looking at how we can address this, how we can remove barriers and we will be considering what announcements can be made on this topic in the coming months. But as always my door is open.

    The next thing I want to talk about is the mid-life MOT. I think this is something I’ve personally championed until I’m blue in the face.

    The reality of the situation is this: every single one of us here, receives interventions on a public health basis, at all particular stages. So if like me, you’re reaching a certain age, my GP is announcing that various parts of my anatomy are going to fail unless I come to see him as a matter of urgency. If like me, you get a text from your dentist saying I really haven’t flossed enough and need to come and see him again. Or if like my missus, you’re getting the regular invites and updates to have the standard sort of checks that are absolutely life-preserving to public health in the modern era, then you will appreciate that to their credit the Department of Health, and health professionals have engaged with us as a wider community to do preventative health in a way that is genuinely transformational.

    The reality is that we don’t really do that in finance. Almost all of you are in the business of finance. I believe that the sea change will be as we go forward, that there is proper intervention one way or another to engage people, not just with their pension savings but with a whole host of other matters, whether it is their health outcomes, their retraining, their long-term employability, and so much more.

    But it’s something that we’ve taken forward as a department. I believe that it’s in your interest because I think that the more that we engage people at an earlier stage in their long-term retirement and savings plans, it’s going to be better for the industry.

    We’ve been working over the summer, as a department, with a number of employers, and I’d particularly like to praise Aviva who have done a mid-life MOT test, and have done a trial and a pilot in their Norwich office. I went to see them and I’ve met many of the people that were engaged in that pilot.

    And there’s one really interesting thing about a mid-life MOT, if you are an employer, you will probably be thinking this is the sort of worthy thing that HR would like us to do and that will cost my business, in certain circumstances; I might do it because it’s a good thing in terms of employee management but it’s not actually going to bring me any commercial benefit to the business.

    I genuinely believe you could not be more wrong, and the evidence I believe from the Aviva pilot and the other pilots that are ongoing, will show absolutely conclusively, that if you wish to retain your people, your 20-year people who have absolute muscle memory of your business, if you wish to have a real understanding of how you’re going to have the people that are 40, 50 and 60 continuing to work for your business and making sure that they continue to push your business forward, then a mid-life MOT is something that helps them do that. And the drop-out rate – taking advantage of pension freedoms, taking advantage of the change in lifestyles – is much lower for those doing a mid-life MOT.

    So I’m a massive fan of this, there are other companies who are beginning to embrace this, I would be doing a disservice to the endless lobbying that Tom McPhail does to me if I didn’t make the point that Hargreaves Lansdown are offering a mid-life MOT to all of their staff, and my point would be simply this: if you are in the business of selling finance to all of your customers, what are you doing for your individual staff? Because if they aren’t engaged with finance, and financial decisions and an awareness of their situation, frankly I don’t know who is.

    So I believe it’s something we should get behind, and at the same stage we are working on a number of other things.

    The 2 photos here I have to say something, it’s a fair point to say that I’m working with the lovely Jack Dromey and obviously on CDCs we’re working with Royal Mail and the CWU. I’d like to say, we’re so tight we held a joint meeting, it’s not often I invite a Labour shadow minister into the Department for Work and Pensions, but we held a joint meeting to try and make sure we are joined up in the way we do this.

    The longer-term viability of pensions legislation means that by and large if you aren’t working together on a cross-party basis you will not get things through.

    If you haven’t noticed the Prime Minister doesn’t enjoy the largest majority. Obviously everything is going fine, but you do need to work together. And it is absolutely the case that Jack and I are speaking together on a regular basis, mostly in a nice way, occasionally robustly. But we are working very hard to bring things forward.

    The reality of CDCs is that we’ve been working hand in glove on a regular basis, meeting with Royal Mail, the CWU; they are with the department literally on a bi-weekly basis. And we believe we are very, very close, I would love to have stood up here today and said ‘here is the consultation’ but we’re not quite able to do that. But we are very close to announcing the consultation on CDCs. It is something that we have been working hard on to ensure we have the legislative and regulatory framework, which would work best for such schemes in the UK.

    Any changes we make to facilitate CDCs have got to work for both the employers and members, and must have the adverse impact upon the rest of the pensions system. But we are making tremendous progress, and contrary to popular belief we’re also making tremendous progress on the Pensions Dashboard.

    Everyone agrees, and I don’t think there’s any doubt whatsoever, and I’m sure I’ll be grilled later on to within an inch of my life if I was in any doubt. Everybody agrees that a Pensions Dashboard, facilitated by government, led by industry, will be truly game-changing. I certainly believe that.

    As I set out in my written statement given to the House of Commons in September, we are going to make this happen, we remain utterly committed to making the dashboard a reality – you shouldn’t read too many things in the newspapers that’s for sure – and the feasibility study, examining ways to facilitate an industry-led dashboard is still under way. It is genuinely true that the department is in daily contact with the industry; if we haven’t contacted you individually my apologies but I promise you we’re contacting a lot of people. I’m unable to make a specific announcement today, and I’m sorry that that’s something I can’t do, but I promise you the work that has been done in assessing the feasibility of the Pensions Dashboard, has made it clear that while we shouldn’t underestimate the size and complexity and difficulty of the challenge, at the same stage this is something that we passionately want to do.

    The simple point is this, very often people will come to any government, particularly this government and say ‘we want you to do this’. It’s quite clear that the government has a role to play in the dashboard, a very significant and real role, and I don’t shirk from that in the slightest but at the same stage so does industry, so ask what you’re doing to make this happen. This is something that can only happen on a collective basis.

    I want to finish on 2 final points.

    I want to renew my desire for all of you to work with me in the financial inclusion space.

    It was a massive honour that the Prime Minister decided to make me the Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, and I think the 2 are utterly linked and over the course of the last year, I have drawn a number of conclusions, one of which is that increasingly, customers want all information in a mobile or laptop friendly form. Fintech is transforming banking, without a shadow of a doubt, it is transforming savings and in my view, pensions will be next.

    At the same time, I’ll make the point again, you all have to ask what you’re doing to enhance financial inclusion amongst your own staff and amongst the customers you have.

    I want to end on what I consider to be the elephant in the room, which is Brexit.

    It’s clearly nothing to do with a speech to the PLSA but I think it’s important.

    It’s easy to get bogged down in the process of our exit from the European Union.

    For my part though, I’m more interested in the future after our departure, I’m more interested in ensuring we are able to be positive and optimistic about our place in the world, that we’re able to say in a few years’ time ‘look at how we’ve embraced tech, look at how we’ve embraced flexible working, look at how we’ve embraced automation, look at how we’ve embraced lifelong education and training and how that has impacted on the country, on who we are and who we want to be.

    I want to be able to say ‘look at how we have confronted the politics of anger and rage and nationalism, and replaced it with quiet hope and positive optimism and an ability to rationally disagree, rather than to abuse’. I want to be in a position that we look at how we have reshaped our role in the world, while still championing equality, while still championing international aid, while still upholding human rights and the rule of law. And look at how we have remained open and inclusive.

    Yes it is the case that this country wants greater control but at the same time, that is the kind of country I am striving for. I think we all accept we are on a journey, and a difficult journey but if we work together, if we commit to, in the future, to being a sunny, optimistic, positive country, then I believe that if we work together we can make this happen. Thank you very much.

  • David Lidington – 2018 Speech at the Stock Exchange

    Below is the text of the speech made by David Lidington, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, at the London Stock Exchange on 24 October 2018.

    Well thank you very much indeed for the invitation to open trading today and to mark this, the first, the inaugural, and I’m sure by no means the only or the last, London Stock Exchange Group’s cyber security conference.

    We’ve got every reason in this country to be proud of the United Kingdom’s position at the front of the global digital revolution – driving our prosperity and enhancing our national security. We have seen a rise in the number of new cyber technology companies, right across the UK, who are helping to keep some of our biggest enterprises secure.

    But of course, with that opportunity comes risk. We’ve also seen a significant increase in malicious cyber activity globally – both from hostile nation states and from cyber criminals. And only last week The National Cyber Security Centre reported that it is defending the United Kingdom from around 10 significant cyber attacks every week.

    And that’s why cyber security remains a top priority for the government and why, two years ago, we launched the National Cyber Security Strategy.

    At the very heart of the government’s response was the creation of the National Cyber Security Centre, bringing together the best intelligence and expertise. Right here in the City, the NCSC’s valuable partnership with the Bank of England and its suppliers is helping to build cyber security into the heart of a number of next generation systems. And I am delighted to announce this morning, that Faster Payments – now called Pay.UK – will be the latest scheme to benefit from this collaboration. It will ensure that every payment processed in the United Kingdom is done so safely and securely.

    The financial sector has, for a long time, recognised the cyber risk posed by criminals and by states, and I know that financial companies routinely considers cyber security as part of an overall approach to business risk.

    In fact, we in government have taken best practice from the financial sector. We’ve launched the GBEST scheme, for government, based upon the sector’s CBEST model. And this will improve government systems to identify and to act against sophisticated and persistent cyber attacks.

    And I think the finance sector in the UK should be commended for the initiatives they have taken and the standards they have set.

    But the government’s latest Cyber Security Breaches survey showed a significant proportion of companies overall in our economy are still not adopting the basic cyber security precautions that are needed. More than two in five businesses identified breaches in the last twelve months. Despite that, two thirds of FTSE 350 boards say that they have had no training in how to deal with a cyber incident.

    There is still a lot more to do – and our ability to build the necessary resilience in the face of these challenges, relies on the strength of our collective action and expertise.

    Now last week, I really enjoyed being at UK Finance, and it gave me great pleasure to give the government’s full backing to a new initiative to further cement the growing partnership between industry and the public sector. Early next year, we will establish the Finance Sector Cyber Collaboration Centre. This will build on existing industry expertise and exploit the NCSC’s Industry 100 scheme, it will be led by UK Finance in alliance with 20 financial institutions.

    As government, we recognise that cyber security is everyone’s responsibility. We must learn from – and support – one another. For example…

    …By taking part in our annual FTSE 350 Cyber Governance Health check – which is now open – you can benchmark the cyber security of your organisation against your peers and understand where you can improve your resilience to cyber attacks.

    And I believe our efforts are bearing fruit. The UK’s cyber security industry is making an enormous contribution and is generating more than £5 billion to our economy.

    It benefits from strong support from government, including specialist expertise and world leading academic institutions which are providing much needed access to funding, targeted support and also testing facilities. There has never been a better time to invest in our high-quality and home-grown cyber security start-ups and emerging businesses – there are now more than 800 of those across the UK.

    Those businesses, supported by the government’s Industrial Strategy, provide world leading products and services to buyers right across the world – injecting innovation into our economy to build a UK fit for the future.

    We consider it vital that all organisations should embrace and embed cyber security, from the boardroom down. This isn’t only about minimising operational, financial and reputational risk. Building resilience amongst employees and customers can also be a catalyst for far greater change.

    That’s why I will be meeting a number of FTSE 350 Chairman to discuss how the government’s new Board Toolkit will help you better understand cyber risks and also to seek the ideas of business leaders on how to make our nation more resilient.

    So, to look ahead to the challenges and opportunities of the future, I look forward to continuing to work together with you in the financial sector, and business more widely, to protect both our national security and our joint economic prosperity.